The Latest On Zika: New Vaccine Shows Promising Results In Mice

The Zika poison , which is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, is vehemently suspected to be linked to a commencing wave of microcephaly cases in Brazil. Babies born by the birth defect have smaller heads and at a past period brains that aren’t fully developed, what one. can result in life-long developmental problems.

Zika is currently spreading through Central and South America and the Caribbean, and by the high volume of news relative to the virus, it’s tough to stay up-to-era. Check out our full coverage, or peruse our daily recaps.

Here are five updates, opinions and developments to discern about now:

1. A U.S. guests says its Zika vaccine has shown encouraging results in mice

U.S. pharmaceutical companionship Inovio is developing a Zika poison vaccine that appears to work in mice. The synthetic vaccine produced “hale and durable immune responses” in pre-clinical trials, the house said in a statement Wednesday. Inovio last ~ and testament now test the vaccine in non-human primates, and are construction preparations for trials in human beings ~ dint of. the end of 2016.

The copartnership is one of at least 15 firms or lettered groups trying to develop a vaccine with regard to Zika virus, reports Reuters. Dr. Anthony Fauci, adviser of the federal National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has declared in past press conferences that he expects his management’s version of a Zika poison vaccine to start human trials ~ the agency of summer of 2016.

2. The FDA recommends a malediction on blood donations in places through active Zika virus transmission

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to inflict a stop to collecting blood in areas whither there is active Zika virus transmittance. In the U.S., those are the territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands, reports Reuters. The recommended maledict could also extend to a few southeastern U.S. states if they besides experience small disease outbreaks as expected. Clinics force of ~ be able to continue collecting platelets and plasma in areas through active Zika virus transmission only grant that they use an FDA-approved pathogen-lowering device to lower the risk of excessively the virus to recipients.

The FDA furthermore recommended that people traveling from ~y area with active Zika virus transferrence refrain from donating blood for at in the smallest degree four weeks, along with anyone who may own experienced symptoms or had sex by a person who may have been exposed to Zika poison . Currently, there are no reports that Zika virus has entered the U.S. fiery fellow supply.

3. The World Health Organization is trying to raise $56 million to draw the sword Zika

About $25 million will arrive directly from the WHO, but the global hale condition body says that it expects other countries and donors to give as well. The WHO has even now deployed about $2 million in urgency funds to get work going, reports Reuters.

Global freedom from disease experts criticized the move, saying that WHO doesn’t show to have learned lessons from the Ebola critical juncture.

“That lesson is that mobilizing funding in the heart of a global emergency will for aye be too little, too late,” declared public health professor Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

WHO declared the microcephaly potentially linked to Zika venom to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern without interrupti~ Feb. 1.

4. Microcephaly conspiracy theories are spreading like wildfire

As microcephaly cases in Brazil hold out to rise, rumors and conspiracy theories with reference to what causes the birth defect are spreading, in addition, according to the New York Times. Scientists, governments and hale condition organizations all strongly suspect that there’s a connection between Zika venom and microcephaly, and are working to make trial of that connection now. Conspiracy websites and at least one Hollywood actor, however, claim that there might be something more sinister astern the birth defect’s increased efficacy.

A report by Argentinian doctors that claimed a Monsanto-produced larvicide in Brazil’s tippling water was the true cause of the region’s microcephaly surge was roundly debunked ~ the agency of HuffPost and other publications this this week, mete other far-fetched theories are motionless being passed around. They include manifold combinations of the following: a British biotech companionship released genetically modified mosquitos that case microcephaly, microcephaly is part of a contrivance to depopulate the Earth and cause a “one-world” government, expired vaccines enterprise microcephaly, chicken pox and rubella vaccines originate microcephaly, and Zika is a fraud to distract Brazilian citizens from a cancer method of treatment that the government is keeping privy.

In a country where many citizens before that time mistrust the government, rapidly spreading misinformation, in the same state as the debunked larvicide report, is especially unsettled.

“The effect of this [declare] to cause panic in people, and to interrupt an effective response to disease carrying-vectors, is a remarkably substantial negative,” Ian Musgrave, an expert on neurotoxicology and pharmacology at the University of Adelaide anterior told HuffPost. “If they wanted to superintendence the mosquitos, what are they going to appliance now? Something even more toxic?”

5. A Zika en~ in the UK provides more ground of belief of sexual transmission

A new detonation on a United Kingdom resident who contracted Zika venom after traveling to the Pacific Islands in 2014 set that the virus stayed in the some one’s semen for almost nine weeks later than he became ill, Live Science reported.

“Our given conditions may indicate prolonged presence of [Zika] poison in semen, which, in turn, could shadow forth a prolonged potential for sexual transmittal,” researchers from Public Health England wrote in the give out, to be published in May in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.